The global delivery giant has just acquired Transports Chabas Santé, a French specialist in medical transport and logistics. The experts at AURIS Finance, a consultancy specialising in mergers and acquisitions, take a closer look at this strategic move in the logistics sector.
By snapping up Transports Chabas Santé, UPS is acquiring fifty employees, around forty temperature-controlled transport vehicles, and a large amount of storage space. The acquisition is highly strategic, enabling UPS to expand its offering to the medical industry in France and Europe through its health division.
A strategic edge
The acquisition of Transports Chabas Santé gives UPS a major competitive advantage in medical logistics. By combining Transports Chabas Santé’s expertise in the challenging management of healthcare products with UPS’s global reach, the newly combined company will be very well positioned to meet the growing demands of the healthcare market. “We are developing a pan-European cold chain delivery network to ensure that next-generation pharmaceutical and biological treatments are delivered on time and at the required temperature,” said John Bolla, President of UPS Healthcare, at the time of the acquisition. ‘We share the same commitment to quality, and Chabas Santé’s activities will enable us to establish ourselves as the leading provider of complex logistics solutions for the healthcare sector.”
A rapidly expanding sector
By stepping up its offer to the medical industry, UPS is positioning itself in a booming market. Worldwide demand for the transport of pharmaceuticals has intensified in the wake of the Covid health crisis. According to estimates by Business France, the French sector is expected to generate 130,000 direct and indirect jobs, and €40 billion in revenue, by 2030. A windfall that UPS intends to capture through its subsidiary UPS Healthcare, which now totals almost one million square metres of healthcare distribution space worldwide. After being one of the most active players in the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines, the group is stepping up its offensive in the healthcare logistics market. At the end of September 2023, UPS signed an agreement to acquire the American company MNX Global Logistics, a specialist in urgent and sensitive deliveries to the healthcare sector.
A new standard
These various mergers are laying the foundations for a new standard in medical logistics. The strict requirements for transporting healthcare products apply right through to delivery. The service provider is subject to stringent health regulations that require perfect management of cold chain constraints and total respect for deadlines. The integration of specialists such as MNX Global Logistics and Transports Chabas Santé will enable the giant to achieve synergies to maximise operational efficiency. Faced with these powerful alliances, UPS’s competitors will have to rethink their strategies in order to remain competitive in terms of the speed and reliability of their delivery services.
Our experts at your side
While the healthcare logistics market is currently expanding rapidly, regulatory and sanitary constraints are leading to consolidation. In the coming months, French transport companies specialising in the healthcare sector could become the target of the giant UPS. A sale needs to be prepared well in advance. AURIS Finance has a team of advisors specialised in the transport and logistics sector. Whatever your project, we are here to support you.
